Pride
by Pikatwig
Summary: After one trip in Mementos, Futaba begins to wonder about something important that will affect her already existing relationship with Akira and her current friendship with Haru. (In honor of Pride Month. AkiraXFutabaXHaru)


Ladies and gentlemen, happy Pride Month. I hope that people who are on the LGBT spectrum have been enjoying this month.

Been wanting to try my hand out at doing a Persona story focused squarely on the Phantom Thieves. I have asked others for their thoughts on me doing a full on novelization about Persona 5, but nobody has given me any kind of answer yet. Gonna try my hand at writing something related to the group and see what people think of the story.

Anyway… the character that this will primarily focus on is Futaba. Not just because she's my personal favorite of the Phantom Thieves, but some of her interactions in Dancing Star Night/Dancing in Starlight seem to at least nudge that she might be bisexual.

This story will basically focus on her kinda realizing this and how it'll impact things with Akira (and, yes, Joker's real name will be Akira in this).

Not much else to say other than I hope you enjoy this.

Persona belongs to Atlus, Sega, and its other owners.

* * *

"We have about a week and a half left until we run out of time for Nijima-san's Palace… we have the route secure, and we're ready to send the Calling Card…" Akira recapped as he looked over some papers with their current info, "...but somebody still won't let us send it. Moreover, he can't be bothered to actually show up to the meeting…"

"He said there was something he had to take care of," Makoto reminded.

Akira gave an annoyed exhale as he leaned back into his seat. He looked around at the other members of the team and his expression relaxed upon settling his eye on Futaba. He then quickly turned his attention back to the rest of the time, "Anyway… I want to make sure we're ready, so we're gonna head to Mementos and train."

"Sounds like a plan," Morgana responded.

Responses of agreement sounded from the remaining members of the team. Akira took a moment to adjust his glasses and then gained a bit of a confident look on his face, "It's showtime..."

Most of the team got up and headed out of Akira's room, but Akira gave Haru a motion to stop for a moment.

"Akira-kun?"

"You sure you're up to this? You can hang back if you want."

"I'll be fine, I promise."

"...if you're sure," Akira hesitantly told her.

"Don't worry about me," Haru told him with a calm smile as she headed out.

Akira simply exhaled before he heard Futaba give him an 'ahem' and he quickly turned to face her.

"What was that about?" Futaba questioned.

"She nearly fainted the other day… I just wanted to make sure she would be okay is all…" Akira explained.

"Alright then..." Futaba nodded simply.

The two then followed after the others to head into Mementos for the afternoon.

* * *

Joker, Morgana, Panther, and Noir were in the midst of fighting off some Shadows before they effortlessly finished them off with an All-Out Attack. Their leader took a moment to give off his pose as the Shadows exploded from the finisher.

"And that's it," Joker remarked as he was rejoined by the others, "Alright."

All of them quickly got into the Morganamobile and they continued along. The ride was, for the most part, quiet apart from the occasional remark some people in the group had about whatever was on their mind at the time.

Eventually, after a while of driving, Noir let out a yawn and leaned against her seat.

"Noir, are you alright?" Queen asked.

"I'm alright. I promise," Noir assured.

However, before the conversation could go any further, a Shadow ended up getting smacked by the front of the Morganamobile. The team quickly got ready for action as Joker, Morgana, Panther, and Noir took front stage.

"Just watch me, I'll show you that I'm fine," Noir told Queen with a relaxed smile.

* * *

"She's out like a light…" Skull noted as they arrived at a rest area within Mementos, with a now fast asleep Noir being set gently down on a chair.

"You sure you don't have anything that can wake her up?" Panther asked Joker.

"Nope. I guess we were lower on supplies than I thought we were…" Joker admitted.

"And I don't think any of us have enough SP to cast something that can wake her up…" Queen added.

"What's the plan now?" Fox inquired.

Joker crossed his arms as he began to think over their options. He took a moment to look over to the sleeping Noir before he looked over to the others, "I think… maybe we should try to fight a little bit more. See if we can find something that'll wake her up."

"You're going to trust in RNG?" Oracle responded.

"Why not? We've gotten lucky in the past."

"If we do that, then who's going to stay and look after Noir?" Queen questioned.

"Probably me," Oracle said with a slight shrug, "I'll let you guys know if she wakes up."

"Once she's awake, we'll pull out for the day," Joker added.

Nods came in response as everybody but Oracle and Noir headed away from the area. Oracle took a moment to pull out her laptop, turned it on, and began to type on it in order to try to keep in contact with the others on the team.

* * *

It had been about an hour, but there was still no luck. Oracle closed her laptop and gave an annoyed sigh in response to this.

'_RNG is definitely not on our side, today. ...well, guess our luck stat went down after people started to lose faith in us or something,' _Oracle thought. She then turned her attention over to her still sleeping teammate and lightly poked her cheek to see if it would help. Nothing happened. _'Well… that about figures. Tch. If it were that simple, then I think she'd be up by now. ...guess her near fainting the other day added onto that sleeping spell that Shadow cast on her must've thrown up a deeper sleep than just a normal amount of sleeping spells would cause.'_

Oracle pulled her goggles up to her forehead as she continued to look at Noir, _'...huh. I never noticed how fluffy her Phantom Thief outfit made her look. ...guess she has an affinity for fluffy things. ...might explain why she's attracted to Akira. Yeah, Noir, I'm aware you got a thing for him. ...I'm also aware that I'm not speaking to you right now and that you can't hear my thoughts like a video game character would… not like you'd hear me anyway with you being asleep and all, but… point is, I know that you're in love with Akira too.'_

Noir then rolled a little bit in her sleep, yet still had a peaceful look on her face. Oracle looked at her peaceful expression and gained a slight blush as she saw just how relaxed Noir was.

'_...huh. I never noticed this, but… she's really pretty. Both in her Phantom Thief outfit and in her normal clothes. …well… anybody would be lucky to get with her given how sweet she is. Male or female…'_ Oracle thought as she got close to Noir, _'...oh wait… what was the name of that story Mom read me when I was younger? The one about a prince who woke up their princess with a kiss? ...maybe…'_

The younger girl then moved Noir so she could see her cheeks before she very carefully leaned close and gave her a soft kiss to the cheek. Oracle quickly pulled away, blushing heavily, and then walked a bit away from Noir.

'_No~~~~! Why'd I do that?! I'm supposed to only be loyal to one person and, if not, I'd get a bad ending! Bad Futaba, bad! Why'd you do that?! Wh-'_

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts upon hearing Noir yawn and turned to see that she had finally woken up.

"Good morning…" Noir greeted in a calm tone.

"...huh. That… actually worked…" Oracle muttered.

"Oracle? Where are the others?" Noir asked.

"They uh… went out to find something to wake you up with…" Oracle informed, quickly getting herself to focus, "We were out of items that could do the job…"

Noir simply nodded a bit in response, then proceeded to stand up and stretch a little bit. She then looked towards Oracle with a smile, "Thank you for waking me up, Oracle. ...however you woke me up."

"No problem…" Oracle nervously responded before she got her goggles back on, "Let's go find the others. Haven't been in contact with them for a little while."

* * *

Morgana got struck by the powerful Shadow that the group had found themselves forced to fight. The small cat looked around for a moment before he saw an area that he could hide behind, "I'll back out and focus on support!"

Joker simply nodded his head in response as he looked over to the others and gave a small growl as he saw that they were all to badly injured in order to continue the battle. He held onto his knife as he looked at the Shadow, but he then noticed something roll towards the ground nearby it. Joker gained a smirk before he dodged out of the way of the resulting blast that hit the Shadow.

"Support's on the way!" Oracle declared as she quickly healed everybody on the party.

"Good timing," Joker smiled as Noir landed by his side.

"You're welcome," Noir smiled back.

"How exactly did you guys anger a Reaper?" Oracle asked.

"It snuck up on us and we couldn't get away," Fox explained.

"Milady!" Noir yelled as she summoned her Persona to strike with an attack. The Reaper ended up getting stunned by the attack before Joker and Noir quickly rushed in for an All-Out Attack.

"Beat 'em up!" Oracle shouted.

The duo landed the final blow and the Reaper exploded into smoke.

"Wasn't that graceful?" Noir remarked.

"Indeed it was… indeed it was…" Oracle responded.

* * *

The group was now back at the entrance and being healed by Oracle.

"Sorry about that, guys. I didn't realize how much our last run in Niijima-san's Palace drained our supplies…" Joker apologized.

"It's the first time you've made such a mistake, so don't let it bother you too much. All you need to do is make sure you don't do it again and we'll be good," Morgana told him.

"Oh, so when HE makes a mistake, he doesn't get yelled at! But when I make a mistake…" Skull yelled.

"Because you make the same mistakes over and over again…" Morgana retorted.

Oracle exhaled before she nervously walked over to Joker, "Hey… uh…"

"Good job today. We wouldn't have survived the Reaper if you didn't show up when you did," Joker smiled as he leaned down and gave Oracle a kiss to the cheek, "Thank you."

Oracle blushed happily and gave Joker a kiss to the cheek back.

"Were you going to tell me something?" Joker asked.

"Oh. Uh… it wasn't important. I think we're good to head back now," Oracle informed.

"Ok," Joker nodded.

* * *

Upon returning home, Futaba collapsed into her bed from the exhaustion of going into the Metaverse. She took off her glasses and then just covered herself under her blankets.

'_...what was I thinking? Why did I kiss Haru's cheek earlier? And… why did my heart start beating the same way that it beats whenever Akira and I kiss? ...could I… no… am I? ...well… I do think of the other girls in some odd ways at times, but… I love Akira. So… I…'_ Futaba thought before her exhaustion got the better of her and she fell asleep.

* * *

The next day soon arrived. Futaba walked over to the cafe and saw that it was pretty quiet at the moment.

"Good morning, Futaba," Sojiro greeted.

"Hey," Futaba responded as she got into a seat, "Do you have a minute?"

"Something the matter?"

"It's nothing major. Just wanna talk a little…"

Sojiro simply nodded his head a bit before motioning for Futaba to start.

"Well… um… I'm starting to think about romance a little…" Futaba began. She paused for a moment to see if Sojiro's expression had altered at all. She then continued after seeing it was still the same, "And… I think I might like… both."

"I see…" Sojiro responded, "You're thinking you might be bisexual, huh…"

"Yeah…" Futaba nodded.

The two were both quiet for a little bit. Eventually, Sojiro placed a cup of coffee in front of Futaba.

"Don't worry about it. So long as whoever you end up with makes you happy, then I'll be okay with it," Sojiro assured her.

"Thanks, Sojiro," Futaba smiled before she sipped her coffee, "You know, from what I read online, this seemed to be a lot more harmful than helpful when talking about it with family. But… I'm perfectly fine and you're perfectly fine."

"Don't believe everything you read online, Futaba," Sojiro chuckled.

Futaba simply nodded before she went over to have her coffee at a booth. She then noticed her adoptive dad having a thoughtful expression, "Something up?"

"Just thinking about something. Don't worry about it."

Futaba simply gave a nod in response to that.

* * *

My apologies for how long this story took to be released. The first chapter had some issues being written due to me becoming a little busy, but it's finished and we got another four chapters to go. I have general road-map of how I want to proceed with this story, so it's only a matter of getting it worked on and posted.

I do apologize for any possible out of character behavior. I think that I have a good grasp about the characters in the game, but I'm not 100% sure on if I do have a full grasp on them.

Though, if I can comment on something, I forgot how late in Haru's Confidant the event of her nearly passing out actually happened. That was rank seven of her Confidant. I honestly thought it was rank five. My bad there. Ah well.

Regardless, I had fun working on this. I hope that you all had fun reading it. Not sure what my favorite part would be.

Just Live More.


End file.
